Bloomberg To Unveil Anti-Gun News Site Tonight

Little is known about “The Trace”—the Bloomberg-funded “news” outlet some are (rather audaciously) calling anti-gunners’ answer to NRA News—but we expect more to become clear tonight, when the site is unveiled at a party in Washington, D.C. Though we obviously weren’t on the guest list, an invitation leaked to Washington Examiner read simply, “Please join us for a preview of ‘The Trace.’ The journalism startup dedicated to changing the conversation about guns in America,” (accompanied by the site’s logo, oddly reminiscent of the one JCPenney jettisoned in 2014).

Aside from this vague, poorly written mission statement, details are scarce. While one associate reportedly claimed “The Trace” is “not anti-gun,” an article in New York’s “Capital” referred to it as the “editorial arm” of Bloomberg’s Everytown—which we’re much more inclined to believe. We’ll soon find out, as the eagerly awaited reveal is almost here. Surely you’re all counting the minutes.

Armed Man Halts Burglars Returning For Seconds

Arthur Lindsay of Windsor, Mo., lost his house to a fire and has been keeping his salvaged belongings in a shed out back. As if that wasn’t enough of a blow, his neighbor soon reported seeing two men burglarizing the shed. “I just want to know who would steal from your property after a fire?” he mused.

Lindsay put in a webcam to monitor the property, and it turned out that the culprits weren’t done. The next day they returned in broad daylight—but this time the owner was ready. He approached them with a pistol and ordered them to lie down until law enforcement arrived. “You bet I’d do it all over again …” said Lindsay. “You just don’t do that to people.”

Reagan: Armed Citizen Extraordinaire

The Obama administration appears poised to spend its last days fighting the right of American citizens to bear arms, and a certain note of hypocrisy is present. After all, some in the hallways of power would like nothing more than to leave you disarmed, but you’ll never see them out in public without a security contingent capable of toppling a foreign regime. However, newly released information indicates that President Ronald Reagan was not in the habit of putting his bodily safety entirely in the hands of others.

While conducting research for a book on Reagan, author Brad Meltzer says he was informed by Secret Service agents that the president carried a .38-caliber handgun in his briefcase when he left the White House. For a leader fond of emphasizing personal responsibility, this is an admirable act of consistency: Even surrounded by some of the best-trained bodyguards in the world, he was his own last line of defense.

An “Automatic” Gaffe

In a permanent media maelstrom seemingly stuck in “Whatever!” mode, we guess it’s no surprise when important details wind up seriously wrong. Such is certainly the case when New York magazine, the Cleveland Sun-Times and even the UK’s Daily Mail report that “automatic weapons” were used in the Dallas Police Headquarters attack.

This supposed upping of the ante in firearms abuse was the result of unvetted bystander reports. It was also denied multiple times by Dallas police, all the way up to Chief David Brown. In other words, not first-, not second-, but at best third-hand information was reported as fact by the so-called “mainstream” media.

This particular error is a depressingly constant feature of media and political discourse on guns and crime. And given how well it feeds the anti-gun agenda, it seems a bit naïve to write it off every time as “just a mistake.”

Professor Warns Coloradans: “We Need To Be Armed”

Is there a serial killer on the loose in northern Colorado? Police are speculating that three unsolved murders over the last two months may be related. Don Lindley, a professor at Regis University in Denver, who holds a doctorate in criminology and has studied a number of serial killers, said these “types of people usually don’t stop.” And he warned Coloradans: “We need to be armed.”

With his opinion being that the attacker is seizing upon crimes of opportunity and will continue until he or she is caught, Lindley offered up some solid advice. “If you look around and see all of these gun stores teaching firearms training, there is a reason for that,” said the professor, who also has police and military experience. “Law enforcement does a hell of a job, but they can’t protect everyone.”

For example, the Washington Post claimed that in 1994, “private citizens could freely sell guns secondhand, even to those with criminal records”—even though this has been a federal felony for almost 30 years.